Barack Obama's 100th Day in Office - The Thrill Is Gone Baby

I'd like to dedicate BB King's The Thrill Is Gone to our Beloved Fearless Leader, Barack Obama!

Well, you've finally reached your 100th Day in office and you have proved to us -- to me at least -- that your Economic Team is a disgrace and an embarrassment.

The bloom is off the rose.



Thanks Jesse.

Psychiatry: An Industry of Death

This is a very good documentary and I recommend all who see it here to download this onto your computer and save it!

There's ten parts but I'm only posting the first part for cosmetic purposes so that the blog post doesn't extend vertically too far. The other links are below the video.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml6moLSUdY0&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaWGaHsqay4&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDP-eJq7eOA&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAxrNnvGNbw&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfFhrHEGfPY&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siA2B2HsbJg&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzU9gMMnGXc&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFNO1FE5t6I&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luyWbOpYSzc&feature=player_embedded

End the Fed Forums

A great website! Join up and participate in the discussions! I've joined the forums and you can find me by the same name I post here under: Mister Goldbug.

End the Fed Forums

Great Red Dragon

I'm adding yet another website called Great Red Dragon to our catalog of Sites We Like.

Taken from the About the Site page:

With fore-knowledge, we can defend ourselves against those whose misguided self-interest is to dominate and destroy others in futile attempts to satisfy their egos. I prefer to call them "psychopaths with attaches," and they do more damage, more injury, to more people, than "psychopaths with guns." These "psychopaths" have had one goal in mind for over 300 years, and that is to "own the earth in fee simple." Call it whatever you want; Globalization, Authoritarian Free Enterprise, or New World Order. It matters not. But age-old patterns are now showing up in amazing coincidences, and with the use of computers and the Internet, this may just be the final end-game for us against the "psychopaths."

The goal of this web site is to assist you in recognizing age-old patterns that you might not have seen before, and correlate them with what you see occuring now. Then you might have a chance to defend yourself, your family, and others that are important to you.

Please note that Edward Ulysses Cate is a pen name under which I chose to make this information available on the Internet. So don't go bothering people who happen to be named Ed U. Cate. I sincerely hope this web site will accomplish it's only goal, which is to "EdUCate." The message is important, not the messenger.

This web site is purely a singular and self-funded effort. If you feel that you derived benefits from my efforts and wish to help keep this site available for others, then simply tell others you respect about the "GreatRedDragon.com" site. Any email correspondence will be kept strictly confidential and personal.

This site IS NOT associated with any political, religious, state, or ethnic group or organization. I have NO affiliations with any group or interest, and have no personal agenda, other than to make this information available, free of charge, with the sincere hope that our children will at least be able to enjoy planet Earth as we have, and that we (or they) do not make our world worst in our attempts to make it "better."

Personally, I'm of the opinion that 99% of any group of people, at any place in our world, just wish to make the best living they can, raise children (if desired) and enjoy their lives the best they can without directly hurting or interfering with anyone else. I also feel that each member of this same group generally gets off (that is, feels good inside) when helping another person.

But there's a 1% (or less) group of folks that must have some sort of genetic or mental defect, because they get off making others miserable. If they didn't, why would they work so hard at it? Do we not call such actions "evil?" We all are aware of someone like that, right? We try to stay away from them, and try to keep them from adversely affecting us. And usually they're relatively harmless because they are NOT normally financially rewarded for their not-so-good behavior. They're usually out-numbered and identifiable.

In fact, a 2005 book has been published about this very subject. Martha Stout, PhD, wrote "The Sociopath Next Door." The subtitle is "The Ruthless Versus The Rest of Us." The book's cover states "1 in 25 ordinary Americans secretly has no conscience and can do anything at all without feeling guilty. Who is the devil you know?" Jonathan Kellerman states, on the cover, that this book is "A chillingly accurate portrayal of evil -- the decent person's guide to indecency."
Another book published earlier about this subject is by Paul Babiak and Robert D. Hare, who have written "Snakes in Suits." The subtitle is "When Psychopaths Go to Work." A Publisher's Weekly review states "Psychopaths are described as incapable of empathy, guilt, or loyalty to anyone but themselves; still, spotting a psychopath isn't easy. Babiak, an industrial and organizational psychologist, and Hare (Without Conscience), creator of the standard tool for diagnosing psychopathology, present a study of the psychopath in the corporate landscape...."

More resources on conscience.

Now consider the consequences if such people were financed on a global scale and generally able to conceal their identity. How much more "evil" work, damage, or influence, could they accomplish? And what if they were financed on such a scale that enabled them to pay many others to join them in their mis-deeds, on a ever-growing basis? Not a pleasant thought! But I'm certain that this is how economic, military and other types of problems flare up in our world.

Consider that one percent of just the American population is about 3 million people. Whoa, that's certainly not a small number. So it's up to the 99% in every group of people to keep those one percents of their own group from dividing all of us into smaller groups, messing up our lives, and threatening the future of our children and our planet.

You ever wonder what could happen if 99% of white folks got together with 99% of black folks, combined with 99% of other races, and challenged all those 1%'ers trying to divide and control us? If you can picture that, then you know why those one-percents work so hard at keeping us mentally (and physically) separated into smaller, more managable and controllable groups.

Thus the goal of this site is to show that even over 115 years ago, such evil economic influences were at work and were even recognized by some. How could Woolfolk have even known that as he published his book in 1889, that a Hitler was being born? I'm sure he didn't, but he knew that something evil was taking place, had a good idea of where it was coming from and dared to write about it.

We have the luxury of knowing exactly what took place after this book was published in 1889. So history can be our filter, helping to separate the author's good ideas and principles to keep, and allowing us to recognize and discard erroneous ones.

Do we not progress by separating facts from misunderstandings and trying not to make the same mistakes again and again?

© 2006 by Edward Ulysses Cate

China Admits to Building Up Stockpile of Gold

Jesse posted another great article on his blogsite.

China admits to building up stockpile of gold
Alfred Cang and Tom Miles, Reuters
Friday, April 24, 2009

SHANGHAI/BEIJING - China revealed on Friday that it had secretly raised its gold reserves by three-quarters since 2003, increasing its holdings to 1,054 tonnes - or a pot worth about US$30.9-billion - and confirming years of speculation it had been buying.

Hu Xiaolian, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, told Xinhua news agency in an interview that the country's reserves had risen by 454 tonnes from 600 tonnes since 2003, when China last adjusted its state gold reserves figure.

The confirmation of its surreptitious stockpiling is likely to fuel market talk about Beijing's ability to buy secretly and its ambitions for spending its nearly US$2-trillion pile of savings. And not just in gold: copper and other metals markets are booming thanks to China's barely-visible hand.

Speculation has gathered speed over the last year, since the tumbling dollar has threatened to weaken China's buying power - and give it yet more reason to diversify into gold, oil and metals.

Gold prices jumped on the news of Chinese buying and were up more than 1% on the day at US$912.05 an ounce at 0715 GMT. By a Reuters calculation, China's holding of gold would be worth around US$30.9-billion at current prices.

That accounts for only about 1.6% of China's total foreign exchange holdings and is little more than one-tenth of the value of the U.S. gold reserve, the world's biggest. It also means gold has slipped as a share of China's total reserves from about 2%, based on end-2003 prices.

Only six countries hold more than 1,000 tonnes, and China is ranked fifth, having leap-frogged Switzerland, Japan and the Netherlands with its announcement.

However, the International Monetary Fund and the SPDR Gold Trust exchange traded fund are even bigger, leaving China with the world's seventh-biggest pot of gold.

Several gold market participants said they thought China had bought on the international market, helping to absorb hundreds of tonnes sold off by central banks and the International Monetary Fund in recent years.

"China has been buying via government channels from South Africa, Russia and South America," said Ellison Chu, director of precious metals at Standard Bank in Hong Kong.

But Hu said the increase in China's stocks was achieved by buying on the domestic market and from domestic producers.

China is the world's largest gold producer and does not permit exports of gold ingots, only jewellery, leaving plentiful supplies for the domestic market.

China produced 282 tonnes of gold last year, meaning the state bought around one quarter of domestic production, assuming 454 tonnes increase in state purchases were spread out over the six years since China last reported a change in its holdings.

Despite the rumours, buying by the state was partially obscured by soaring demand for gold as an investment, especially after the bursting of the Shanghai stock market bubble last year.

Investment demand in China rose to 68.9 tonnes from 25.6 tonnes in 2007. But that was still less than one third of retail demand in India, where total bullion consumption topped 660 tonnes last year.

Hu said China recently reported the change in its gold holdings to the International Monetary Fund and would include the latest change in central bank reports and balance of payment statistics.

She did not say when China notified the IMF.

Although gold rose after Hu's comments were published, the price move was not a huge one for the highly liquid market. Prices had jumped by US$13 in the space of an hour on Thursday.

Gold market participants said the news signalled likely further buying by China.

"The comments indicate that China will buy more gold as reserve to improve its foreign reserve portfolio. This is a trend," said Yao Haiqiao, president of Longgold Asset Management.

Hou Huimin, vice general secretary of the China Gold Association, said China should build its reserves to 5,000 tonnes.

"It's not a matter of a few hundred, or 1,000 tonnes. China should hold more because of its new international status, and because of the financial crisis," he said.

"The financial crisis means the U.S. dollar value is changing fast, and it may retreat from being the international reserve currency. If that happens, whoever holds gold will be at an advantage."

The European Central Bank recommends its member banks hold 15% of their reserves in gold, but among Asian nations the percentage is far smaller, said Albert Cheng, World Gold Council managing director for the far east.

China Admits to Significantly Building Up Its Gold Reserves

Federal Registery

I received this in an email and I didn't know if it was legitimate because it came from a website with a ".com" ending. I find out the guy running this website pays attention to the real Federal Registery website and serves as a kind of watchdog.

Anyway, posting this for curiosity's sake.

Presidential Determination No. 2009-15 of January 27, 2009

Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related To Gaza Memorandum for the Secretary of State

By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (the ``Act''), as amended (22 U.S.C. 2601), I hereby determine, pursuant to section 2(c)(1) of the Act, that it is important to the national interest to furnish assistance under the Act in an amount not to exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza.

You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.


(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, January 27, 2009
[FR Doc. E9-2488
Filed 2-3-09; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4710-10-P

David Kellerman Commits Suicide

Initially, when I first heard reports of David Kellerman's suicide I was ecstatic! "One of the conspirators is dead!", I thought! Now I'm not so sure. Of course I will have to learn as much about his role in the company of Freddie Mac as I can. He has been with the company since 1992 so he does have a substantial role in this financial crisis even if it is to the extent of tacit approval. But seeing as how this is Washington, D.C. and politics isn't as clear-cut a game as many people think, this could very well be a Vincent Foster Style murder. I have currently no reason to suspect that it is one. Too bad this couldn't have been about someone like Alan Greenspan or Robert Rubin or Lawrence Summers.

The story follows below.

Freddie Mac Official Found Dead in Apparent Suicide

AP – By ALAN ZIBEL and MATTHEW BARAKAT
WASHINGTON – David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of money-losing mortgage giant Freddie Mac was found dead at his home Wednesday morning in what police said was an apparent suicide.

The Fairfax County police responded to a 911-call at 4:48 a.m. at the suburban Virginia home Kellermann shared with his wife and a daughter. The police would not release the cause of death or say if a suicide note was found.

Kellermann, 41, lived in Hunter Mill Estates, a well-off neighborhood of large single-family homes with manicured lawns. County records show Kellermann's home is worth about $900,000.

Paul Unger, who lives across the street from the Kellermanns, called the family a "solid, salt-of-the-earth kind of family" that hosted the neighborhood's Halloween party. "He was just a nice guy ... You cannot imagine what kind of pressures he must have been under," Unger said.

Kellermann, a University of Michigan graduate who went to business school at George Washington University, worked for Freddie Mac for the past 16 years and was named acting chief financial officer last September when the government seized control of the company and ousted top executives. Freddie Mac lost more than $50 billion last year, and the government has pumped in $45 billion to keep the company afloat.

Kellermann's death is the latest in a string of blows to Freddie Mac, which owns or guarantees about 13 million mortgages and us the No. 2 mortgage finance company after sibling Fannie Mae. The company has been criticized for financing risky mortgage loans that fueled the real estate bubble, and its first government appointed CEO, David Moffett, resigned last month after six months on the job.

Federal prosecutors in Virginia have been investigating Freddie Mac's business practices. But two U.S. law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the Freddie Mac investigation, said Kellermann was neither a target nor a subject of the investigation and had not been under law enforcement scrutiny.

News of Kellermann's death came as a shock to employees of the McLean, Va.-based company, with those who knew Kellermann tearing up on Wednesday morning and a quiet mood prevailing.

Early Wednesday, Sharon McHale, a Freddie Mac spokeswoman, said senior executives at the company heard the news on local radio before going to work. "It's just so awful," she said.

John Koskinen, the company's interim chief executive, said in a statement that Kellermann, "was a man of great talents .... His extraordinary work ethic and integrity inspired all who worked with him."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement that "our deepest sympathies are with his family and his colleagues at Freddie Mac during this difficult time."

Freddie Mac and sibling company Fannie Mae have both come under fire from lawmakers as they plan to pay more than $210 million in bonuses through next year to give workers the incentive to stay in their jobs. While Fannie Mae has disclosed the names of executives in line for the bonuses, Freddie Mac has yet to do so.

Geithner: "Vast Majority" of US Banks Have More Capital Than Needed

Jesse had a very nice piece he wrote yesterday when Geithner was appearing before Congress and testified about updates in the market.

The article can be read in full here.

His commentary follows below:

This morning before Congress Treasury Secretary Turbo Tim, the Tax Cheat, said that the stress test results show that the 'vast majority' of US banks have more capital than they need.

Right. Most real banks, who do banking, have sufficient capital and have been well managed.

Its only the five or six largest money center banks that have trillions in bad debt and toxic derivatives that threaten to soak up all the available capital in the real economy.

Its the vast majority of banks who have been sound in their credit expansion and risk management who are paying the price through higher FDIC fees, along with the taxpayers, as Tim and Larry support the Wall Street oligarchs.

The action in the equity markets ahead of Tim's remarks was about as blatant as it gets. This is getting to be disgusting.

Market manipulation and rampant financial speculation with public funds will continue until we are confident that the economy has improved. When the electricity fails because of malinvestment in the real world economy, the Obama people can have public service community organizers deliver pamphlets door to door telling us how good things are becoming.

Back Off Bitch with your Double Talkin' Jive

If I could paraphrase Axl Rose here for a minute....

I'd like to dedicate these two songs to women who like to play games. To three women who live their lives playin' games. Premeditated games. Women who are so soulless that playing games is all they can do with their lives. Three PARASITES of the World Order. Three women who live their lives sucking off of others' life source and energy. Three women who live their lives vicariously through gullible Americans who are too ignorant in knowing that these women are lying to them and robbing them of their intellectual capacities. These three women are Michelle Malkin, Susan Roesgen, and Hillary Insufferable Bitch Clinton! These are three women who uses you and uses the media to fulfill their parasitic needs.

Initially this was going to be dedicated to Hillary Clinton and I was going to post this at a later date but seriously, it could be applied to either of the three. Especially most recently to Susan Roesgen.

These songs are called Back Off Bitch and Double Talkin' Jive Mother Fucker!

Much respect and apologies to Axl Rose if I have offended him in any way.



Oh baby, pretty baby
Oh honey, you let me down honey
I ain't playin' childhood games no more
I said it's time for me to even the score
So stake your claim, your claim to fame
But baby call another name
When you feel the fire, and taste the flame

Back off, back off bitch
Down in the gutter dyin' in the ditch
You better back off, back off bitch
Face of an angel with the love of a witch
Back off, back off bitch
Back off, back off bitch

Makin' love
Cheap heartbreaker, broken backed,
Nasty ballbreaker, stay out of my bed,
outta my head
If it's lovin' you, I'm better off dead

Back off, back off bitch
Down in the gutter dyin' in the ditch
You better back off, back off bitch
Face of an angel with the love of a witch
Back off, back off bitch
Back off, back off bitch

Emotions ripped, gone on a binge
Life lipped, I said you're off the hinge
Tellin' lies of such fame and glory
I don't even wanna hear your story

Back off, back off bitch
Down in the gutter dyin' in the ditch
You better back off, back off bitch
Face of an angel with the love of a witch
Back off, back off bitch
It's such a pity that you're such a bitch

Back off, back off bitch
It's time to burn-burn the witch
Back off, back off bitch
Back off, back off bitch
Back off, back off bitch
Bitch
Bitch
Bitch
Bitch
Hey wha'd'ya think he's tryin' to say there
anyway?
I think it's something each person's
s'posed to take in their own special way
Fucking bitch



Double Talkin' Jive / get the money mother fucker 'cause I got no more patience.

My Tea Party Thoughts, Part II

Because I didn't attend any of the tea parties that occured across the nation, I had no sense of what happened except for the reports made by media outlets, mainstream and online. Not knowing who to trust for honest reporting on the matter, I immediately consulted a fellow myspacer friend who investigates along the same paths as I do. Having not done any preliminary research herself on the matter, she told me that from what she heard it began as an End the Fed Rally, turned into an anti-Obama stimulus package protest, and then got stupid.

I have since gathered more information from my initial report, and I don't know how much of it was an End the Fed Rally or an anti-Obama stimulus package protest gathering. Needless to say, this was a nationwide protest so of course there's going to be more than one gathering. I'm going to be checking the MySpace Groups, DailyPaul, Campaign for Liberty, and the Ron Paul Forums to find out anything else I can on the matter.

It is understandable that Anthony Gregory, the author of the Waco articles, wrote such snarky and stinging commentary on the Tea Party from the perspective as a whole. Certainlly we're not going to see the kind of Tea Party protest that we'd like to see where we're chasing our representatives and senators and Supreme Court Judges and Federal Reserve Board Members down the street with pitchforks and lit torches. That'd be a scene ripe for declaring martial law and of course political organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center would just love to make some political points out of it. In fact, it would be advantageous to any political organization connected to the government in any way to finance such an occurance. I better stop here. I shouldn't say anything further. One of them may be reading this and might be getting some ideas! Wink, wink to James B and Pat over at Screw Loose Change. They love to demonize patriots, don't they?

Do you know who Kathy Barkilus is? She was the protestor CNN didn't cover. She appeared on Fox & Friends of FoxNews. This is the clip:



Here's Susan Roesgen trying to misrepresent the whole of the entire protest.



"I have to say this is a party for Obama-bashes. This isn't entirely representative of everybody in America." STOP Susan! First of all, what's wrong with bashing Obama if the criticism is legitimate? I'm sure you felt entirely comfortable bashing Bush!

"This was organized by three different conservative groups." Thank you, Susan, for telling us who they were! Such accuracy in your report!! Might two of them be Campaign for Liberty and Restore the Republic? Those two groups are certainly not considered friendly to neocon interests.

"And if you look at some of the signs here!" Yes, I see, one right there on the right of the screen. In big bold black hand-written letters it says "Republicans Suck Too! End the Fed!" Stay with me with here, Susan, I'm going to show you how much of a fucking parasitic bitch you are!

"Wait! Why do you say he's a fascist? He's the President of the United States." So the President of the United States can't be fascist? Didn't a lot of left-wingers like you regard Bush as fascist? I wouldn't necessarily call Obama a fascist. I'd be more willing to call him a communist or a national socialist but not necessarily fascist. The Austrian economists could probably explain to you why they think Obama is a fascist but I doubt you're that smart. You're a CNN whore.

"Why be so hard on the President of the United States with such an offensive message?" The guy really isn't answering her questions because either he's an idiot and can't back up his argument or he's not interested in playing her game. From the way he presents his argument, one could think he's not the smartest, but this is indeed a very smart move. Why answer someone's question who is clearly sanctimoniously interested in your answer? So that they can tear it down? Now Kathy Barkilus has expressed suspicion that he's an ACORN plant, but he could very well be a student of Austrian economics. I can see how someone might try to spin the Barack O'Hitler picture. No one's stupid enough to compare Barack Obama to Hitler because they think both of them "hate jews." But I'm sure CNN would like you to believe that he is comparing them both to make Obama look like he hates Jews. David Axelrod. Rahm Emanuel. Anyone believe this? Laughable.

I bet Screw Loose Change isn't covering this. It wouldn't be very advantageous to the purpose of their blog to defend "tax protesters". Especially with the following video I'm going to post:



"not in our field of view!" go suck on a tailpipe, you piece of shit bitch!

Thank you Founding Bloggers.

My Tea Party Thoughts

Several days ago there was a protest billed as a nationwide "tea party". I didn't go though I wish I had. My ignorance assumed it was going to be an End the Fed Rally since I'm sure Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty was involved in some capacity. Clearly not everyone was on the same page since as I heard it turned into an anti-Obama stimulus package protest -- and then it became stupid.

And the mainstream media? They lapped it up. So I wouldn't mind getting down to the bottom of what became what could be called a "clusterfuck". I don't think conservatives know who they are anymore if the protest rallies are any evidence of how splintered the movement has become.

At least Lew Rockwell and the Gang are calling out the hypocrisy to preserve the credibility of classical liberalism.

Writes Jeff Deist:

It seems to me the Tea Parties failed to deliver any coherent or consistent message; therefore, it was easy for the Left and the pro-state media to marginalize and denounce the protestors. Unless and until people renounce and repudiate Bush and the Republican party utterly and entirely, it's easy to dismiss them as kooks, racists, religious zealots, etc.

After all, what is the protestors' message? We want to go back to Bush? We want less spending but agitate to expand insanely expensive wars? We want a "fair" tax? We're against bailouts of Wall Street, even though the public (correctly) perceives the political right as bought and paid for by Wall Street? We're for states rights and the Constitution? Laughable. We're pro-life? Laughable--even ignoring the pro-war killing mentality, the GOP has done zero to stop abortion.

Conservatives by conscious choice have tied their fortunes to politics in general and the GOP in particular. Politics is nothing more than gang violence over turf. The turf is us. The winner gets to control and loot the American people. So now the other gang controls the turf, and conservatives don't like it.

Cetainly most media outlets prefer the Obama gang to the Bush gang, and shade their "reporting" accordingly. But there is truth in the criticism that the Tea Parties represent nothing more than sour grapes. The public senses, quite correctly, that conservatives only "rebel" when their preferred gang is not in power.

Anthony Gregory writes:

The grassroots spirit at the tea parties was great, but it seems many were hijacked by organized conservatives, Republican partisans, and Fox News-style corporate interests. I hear that at many the speakers were exclusively of the red-state fascist persuasion, thanks to the sectarian organizers.

This reminds me of an analog in the antiwar movement. At peace protests, often the organizers, especially such Marxist groups like A.N.S.W.E.R., do their best to keep non-socialist speakers out of the fray. They thus water down the appeal of the peace message, while packaging it with calls for domestic state power. Similarly, the Tea Party Bushies want to control the message and keep it in line with their own statist agenda. Rush Limbaugh warns, for example, not to let the Tea Parties encourage any effort in third parties -- the GOP plantation is where all resentful of Obama belong.

There is a difference, however, between the antiwar sectarian commies and the anti-tax sectarian neocons – the latter has had more than a chance with power in this country, and we already know what their program brings: endless wars, lies, torture, inflation, and the world's biggest bubble.

Don Cooper was more snarky and stinging in his assessment of the tea party. He writes in his article titled Are You Kidding Me?:

Who are they chanting to? The buildings in front of them? The birds in the trees? Themselves? What was this supposed to do, because it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to surmise that it did NOTHING! All the politicians were inside, smugly and comfortably seated in their expensive leather chairs that we paid for. They were discussing their next round of special interest pandering and deficit spending at our expense while we mingled as if at a, well, tea party. But not the sort of 1773 but rather more like the sort at 4p.m. in England that is served with crumpets.

The politicians could have cared less about the goings on outside and NO ONE took it to them. Shame on us. No one made sure they took notice. No one was put out one bit. No economic loss to the government whatsoever, as was the purpose of the original tea party, so why should they notice?

Is this like giving to a charity? You write a check to feed a starving child for 10 cents a day in some far off, nameless, faceless country and you feel better about yourself?

I attended a "tea party" in the Midwest on Wednesday and there were only about 200 people there. And it was literally a tea party: people came with their coffee mugs and sandwiches, holding signs and standing around and chatting and socializing and then everyone went home. No passion. No signs of real frustration or discontent. No real commitment to changing anything. You know why? Because nobody wants to fire the first shot! Everybody wants change, but only if they don’t have to pay for it. Only if their comfortable lives don’t have to be disrupted for their freedom. What a bunch of crap.

I think we have met the enemy and it is us. We’re a bunch of fast food nourished, MTV anesthetized, shopping mall, plug-in-drug (aka television) addicts who will do anything to preserve that way of life at least until we die. After that who cares?

We’re a clinically obese, socially disconnected, politically inept and intellectually bankrupt nation of douche bags who deserve everything they get.

Where have all the heroes gone? Where are all the pioneers? Where are the visionaries? Where are the true statesmen? Where are the defenders of freedom? What has happened to the American Spirit of life and liberty? I guess they’re all at the mall or Starbucks and are too fat to get up out of their chair and fight. Or they’re looking forward to retirement and the "good life" after spending their life being a good soldier and playing by the rules and saving for the "golden years" while their real golden years of youth were passing them by. Certainly they can’t be asked to risk all that for something as silly as their children’s futures. How selfish of me.

James Ostrowski has very poor hindsight as evidenced in a statement made on the 21st of March. He writes:

Sure, the tea party movement has various GOP front operations trying to steer it off course and there are rumors that the Kochtopus is involved--lethal to any serious movement. (How to tell a front operation? If a website you never heard of starts popping up all over and looks like it cost $100,000.)

But I can assure you that at the heart of the movement is a largely spontaneous and genuine populist and even libertarian spirit.

And of course the following video shows how ignorant some of the protestors must have been. President Lincoln was a two-faced tyrant. Although I think the female journalist was a real bitch being so blatantly biased in her reporting.

Backdating some posts

I wouldn't normally do this and perhaps I'm making a mistake. Some might feel it takes away from the honesty of our blog. I'm going to backdate some new posts. I had the intention yesterday of at least making two posts. There just seems to me to be so much information to cover I become stymied in deciding what I should post and when. I need to work on this.

I'll keep this post up for posterity since I want to keep a transparency with the reader.

UPDATE: Backdated posts: "The Waco Butchers Are Back."

The Waco Butchers Are Back

Reading this article I get the sense that Anthony Gregory's article dips just a tad into the divide and conquer tactic played so well by mainstream political commentators. But I like the article nonetheless because at least he's somewhat of an established political commentator who's willing to call the Waco Holocaust bullshit. And he does make some very good points.

The Waco Butchers Are Back

by Anthony Gregory

Sixteen years ago we were reminded of the deadly danger of having the left-liberals in charge of the police state. The largest massacre of American civilians by the US government since Wounded Knee climaxed on April 19, 1993. The siege that had begun on February 28 with a botched ATF publicity stunt ended when the Branch Davidian church and home went up in flames, after an FBI-operated tank on lease from the military was driven through the building, pumping flammable CS gas for six hours into the place where women and children were cowering in fear. Chemistry professor George Uhlig later testified that the high concentration of the gas combined with poor ventilation subjected the women and children to conditions "similar to… the gas chambers used by the Nazis in Auschwitz."

On April 12, the FBI had ruled out using gas because it was dangerous to children. A week later, Bob Ricks, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge, said the gassing was "to make their environment as uncomfortable as possible until they do exit the compound." This excuse came after weeks of throwing flash-bang grenades at the building when people tried to leave.
Attorney General Janet Reno said the gas attack "was not meant to be D-Day. This was just a step forward in trying to bring about a peaceful resolution by constantly exerting further pressure to shrink the perimeter." This militaristic lingo was characteristic of the feds’ approach throughout the siege. The government had waged psychological warfare by blaring obnoxious music, shining glaring lights and cutting the Davidians off water, electricity, their friends, attorneys and the press. Firefighters were not permitted near the scene as the flames continued engulfing the home. When it was all over, the ATF stuck its flag up on the building to declare victory.

At a press conference on April 20, a day after the FBI gassed American civilians, President Clinton said he did not believe "the Attorney General should resign because some religious fanatics murdered themselves." The press corps, in an unusually naked expression of solidarity with the government, applauded Clinton’s statement.

This underscores the dynamic of having this crop in power. If even the liberals are for a show of force, it must have been necessary. The blame was put on the "religious fanatics," not the government fanatics, and the press and most Americans ate it all up.

The media slavishly pushed war propaganda in Bush’s first term, but they will prove even more sycophantic of Obama. Fair-weather left-liberals who often criticize the most violent side of the Republican state look the other way as their leader jails people without trial, builds civilian surveillance systems, and kills innocents.

Over the last eight years, muckraking liberal journalists dissected every word and deed of the Bush regime, but under Clinton very few were bothered about the unambiguously atrocious nature of the federal raid at Waco. They did not care that Lon Horiuchi, the sniper who murdered Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge in August 1992, had been brought to Waco. They were not jumping up and down about Janet Reno using internationally banned chemical warfare on American children. They did not condemn the FBI for using explosives in addition to flammable gas and then lying about it. They were not concerned what it meant for the militarization of law enforcement, and did not ask why David Koresh, who had befriended federal agents, was friendly with local law enforcement, and had opened the Davidian home up for inspection, was simply not arrested when he was jogging or visiting the bar. The liberals did not wonder why the excuse for the raid shifted from a meth lab to illegal gun ownership to child abuse. They assumed that, as much as the government might have messed up the raid, the fault was primarily that of the victims. The fact that the Davidians were different and armed – though no more armed than the average Texan – was enough to dismiss their suffering and excuse the death of 80 Americans, many of them children, at the hands of law enforcement.

Many mainstream conservatives also backed the administration after Waco, but the weak reaction by the left-liberals, who Americans rely on as the outspoken critics of police abuses, was more important. Incidentally, many libertarians, broadly defined, also took the government’s side. Notably, Objectivist Leonard Peikoff of the Ayn Rand Institute defended the state’s raid and demonized the victims.

When Democratic administrations murder, the law-and-order right is often split. The left is in denial or supportive. And the press tends to spin the story to make the administration seem soft.
The headlines today emphasize Obama’s rhetorical shift from the "war on terror" and his superficial changes in detention policy. The media push the notion that Obama has cut military spending, when he is doing the opposite.

Moreover, the continuity between the Clinton and Obama administrations is not encouraging. We have Hillary, who cheered on the belligerent foreign policy of her husband, the bomber of Belgrade, now in charge of State. We have a Justice Department even more committed to sovereign immunity than the last administration and headed up by Janet Reno’s Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder.

Then there is the group the Democrats love to demonize: "Rightwing extremists." Clinton built a proto-Bushian police state around fear of militias. We saw a major blow to federal habeas corpus, which liberals claim to love, when the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act passed in 1996, in response to Oklahoma City and the supposed epidemic of rightwing militias. When John Ashcroft was being confirmed as Attorney General, his very suggestion that the U.S. government could become "tyrannical" was mocked as ridiculous and extremist by Ted Kennedy and liberals nationwide.

Today, we’re seeing a return of anti-militia hysteria. Just as the federal government and its liberal defenders throughout the 1990s conflated patriotic Americans and peaceful separatists with dangerous "hate" groups and Rush Limbaugh’s listeners with Timothy McVeigh, we have the same kind of culture-war nonsense today.

The Department of Homeland Security recently circulated a report that warns against the "Rise in Right-Wing Extremism." The document is apparently unclassified but nevertheless indicates it is "not to be released to the public, the media" or others who do not "need to know." The libertarian Judge Andrew Napolitano, who has roundly criticized the tyrannical usurpations of both Republicans and Democrats, writes:

The thrust of this report is that in the present environment of economic instability, returning military veterans, those who fear of the loss of Second Amendment-protected rights, those threatened by an African-American president, and those who fear "Jewish ‘financial elites’" could all be a fertile breeding ground for groups whose power and ideas the government hates and fears. The document is essentially a warning for DHS and FBI officials to be on the look-out for rootless persons looking for the comfort of groups as they may be a danger to American security.

The summary (unclassified) document is terrifying. One can only imagine what is contained in the classified version. This document runs directly counter to numerous U.S. Supreme decisions prohibiting the government from engaging in any activities that could serve to chill the exercise of expressive liberties. Liberties are chilled, in constitutional parlance, when people are afraid to express themselves for fear of government omnipresence, monitoring, or reprisals. The document also informs the reader that Big Brother is watching both public and private behavior.

Do you oppose the Federal Reserve? Support states rights? Hate the income tax? Support the right to bear arms? Know the Constitution better than our rulers? You are a likely suspect of a hate crime. You are in the same class as violent racists and terrorists.

With the upsurge in gun and ammo purchases and the mysterious rise in mass shootings, we can expect more efforts to lump violent agitators together with normal Americans who simply wish to defend themselves and their families. With growing resentment about Washington’s saddling future generations with debt, there will be more attempts to characterize Americans who hate paying ransom to a distant government with people who hate their country or want conflict. With the neglected veterans of Bush’s wars having trouble readjusting to society or simply dissatisfied with the increasingly socialistic country they come home to after being told they were defending freedom, we will see this tragedy caused by the federal government disgustingly twisted into a way to bolster that government.

Many Republicans are making a big stink about the DHS report, but others have pointed out that the administration has also warned about "left-wing extremists" and so it is no big deal. Most grassroots conservatives are rightly outraged, although they do not see the continuity from the Bush era. As I warned them on LRC precisely four years ago:

Conservatives today might be able to wrap themselves in the flag and condemn dissidents as traitors, but before they know it, another Clinton might come to power and they’ll be the ones again accused of assisting the enemy by opposing the State. They might come, once again, to see the difference between love of country and love of the government, only it might be too late to bask in the distinction, thanks to the anti-dissident political atmosphere they are helping right now to create. Today’s leftists, it is to be hoped, will remember the feeling of being branded a traitor, should a Democrat be in power during the next national crisis or war.

The next national crisis has come and the left has for the most part not learned its lessons. Now that their guy is in power, we are back to the peculiar political dynamic of the 1990s, when the left-liberal police state conducted atrocities and dissent was thin.

Of course in reality, the policies are bipartisan. Ruby Ridge happened and Waco was planned under Republicans, and Waco was whitewashed by the Republican Danforth Report. The Homeland Security Department and the Fusion Centers going after rightwing militia were begun in the Bush era. Under Bush the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, which targeted many of the same groups today targeted by Obama, won the support of the overwhelming majority of Republican Congressmen. But what changes most is the way the public reacts to state violence, and with left-liberals at the throne police brutality and massacres tend to be more tolerated by the mainstream. It is somehow politically correct when a Democratic administration cracks down on the most marginalized people in society.

Meanwhile, the Obama regime is raiding medical marijuana clinics in violation of the spirit of campaign promises, continuing most dictatorial Bush terror policies, and scheming new ways to censor and control us. They want to take over the internet. They are contemplating more citizen disarmament, a move toward national service and more cradle-to-grave welfarism. By casting "rightwing extremists" as the Other, they can use this domestic bogeyman to expand upon the tools of oppression Bush constructed in the name of fighting the foreign bogeyman. It will aggravate the culture war and cause social division, but we must remember it is the state that is doing this dividing.

Obama has already killed a lot of foreigners. He has already broken key promises on civil liberties and transparency. He has already looted enough for five years of profligate spending. Let us hope his team does not react to "rightwing extremists" the way Clinton’s did at Waco. They would get away with it.

April 18, 2009

Anthony Gregory [send him mail] is a research analyst at the Independent Institute and editor-in-chief of the Campaign for Liberty. He lives in Berkeley, California. See his webpage for more articles and personal information.

Copyright © 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

Goldman Sachs Buries Losses to Beat the Estimates

Jesse has a great piece over on his blogsite about Goldman Sach's legerdemain recently.

Jesse reports: That canny crew at Goldman Sachs does it again.

Last night in a surprise move Goldman announced their earnings early, showing a surprising profit of $1.8 billion, beating the Street estimate handily. The bulk of their profit purportedly came from speculative trading for their own accounts, using 'cheap FDIC guaranteed funds.'

Goldman also took the opportunity to announce a new stock issue designed to allow shareholders to help them pay back their government TARP funds. Since Goldman is putting aside 50% of its profits for employee bonuses even now, while they are still holding government subsidies, the reasons for this are obvious.

What was not reported last night is that Goldman had changed their reporting periods to begin the 1st quarter in January 2009 when they declared themselves to be a bank holding company. Prior to that, their fiscal 2008 year ended on November 30.

This made the month of December 2008 an 'orphan month' that was ignored in the financial headlines.

Goldman took this opportunity to realize some hefty writedowns in that December one month report, to the tune of approximately $1.3 Billion in pre-tax losses.

So, to earn an impressive $1.8 Billion in the first quarter, Goldman disposed of their losses in a largely ignored December filing. This facilitated their share offering with the 'wonderful earnings news' which Matt Miller of Bloomberg referred to approximately every five minutes as "blowing away their numbers."

However, this morning, Matt did mumble something about Goldman "maybe not blowing away their numbers."

Goldman did nothing illegal in their management of their earnings, both in the way in which they parsed the losses into a 'stub month' which was ignored, or in their decision to time an early announcement of 'exceptional profits' with a stock offering. But the financial press handled this badly, and considering the huge debt and forebearance Goldman owes to the government and the public it was not befitting a major institution with strong ties to the Obama administration.

The only thing getting blown away around here are the shareholders, taxpayers, and anyone else who buys what Wall Street in general is selling these days.

The banks must be restrained and the financial system reformed before we can have a genuine economic recovery.

Goldman Sachs may not have done anything that's considered illegal by America's court system, but that doesn't mean they're not doing something deceptive.

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2009/04/goldman-sachs-buried-13-billion-dollar.html

C4L Staffer Detained in St. Louis - Video Goes Viral

I must say that this is just disgusting regarding what happened to Steve Bierfeldt. He needs to find out if filing a lawsuit against these people would be worth his time and effort. I think he'd have to file a suit against the TSA, if not the government itself. Very sad. The news story follows. I will be posting about the MIAC document.

C4L Staffer Detained in St. Louis - Video Goes Viral
Today at 1:41pm
April 6, 2009

Dear Friend of Liberty,

Campaign for Liberty’s very own Steve Bierfeldt has become an unexpected Internet sensation -- and the latest target of over-reaching federal government agents.

You see, Steve was detained by Airport Police and TSA officials shortly after the Campaign for Liberty regional conference in St. Louis.

The officials rudely berated and harassed Steve for 30 minutes in a secluded room at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Fortunately, Steve was able to record nearly all of the interrogation with his cell phone.

Steve’s alleged “crime”? Carrying $4, 700 in checks and cash from Campaign for Liberty, along with various other materials from our conference.

The local and Federal agents harassed Steve. They were belligerent, cursing and using insulting language. They threatened to turn Steve over to the DEA and the FBI, all the while refusing to inform him of his legal rights or explain how cash and checks threatened airplane or airport security.

Throughout the interrogation, Steve remained polite but resolute and declined to answer the invasive questions without an adequate explanation from these federal and local agents as to why they needed to be answered. Without telling Steve what law he was accused of breaking, they continued their harassment.

Although they grew increasingly frustrated that he remained committed to exercising his rights, intervention from another officer eventually led the police to reluctantly release Steve.

Last Wednesday, Steve appeared on Judge Napolitano’s Freedom Watch to discuss the flagrant violation of his rights and to promote the importance of each of us defending our civil liberties.

Now, Steve’s appearance on Freedom Watch – which features several minutes of the audio tape – has gone viral.

Click here to watch the segment, which has become one of the most viewed videos on YouTube.

Steve’s ordeal is a reminder to all patriots that liberty is constantly under fire, and we must remain vigilant and prepared to stand up for our rights.


In Liberty,

John Tate
President, Campaign for Liberty

P.S. Campaign for Liberty staffer Steve Bierfeldt’s appearance on Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano has gone viral! Click here to watch the interview, which features audio tape of Steve’s harassing interrogation by TSA officials and local police in St. Louis Missouri and Steve’s resolute stance for liberty.



P.P.S. The Washington Times picked up on Steve’s story yesterday. Click here to read the article.

Bruce Cockburn Live - Call It Democracy

I never listened to this man but I happened to stumble upon this song. One of the greatest political songs written.



Padded with power here they come
International loan sharks backed by the guns
Of market hungry military profiteers
Whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared
With the blood of the poor

Who rob life of its quality
Who render rage a necessity
By turning countries into labour camps
Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom

Sinister cynical instrument
Who makes the gun into a sacrament --
The only response to the deification
Of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations'
Idolatry of ideology

North South East West
Kill the best and buy the rest
It's just spend a buck to make a buck
You don't really give a flying fuck
About the people in misery

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

See the paid-off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
Open for business like a cheap bordello

And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy

See the loaded eyes of the children too
Trying to make the best of it the way kids do
One day you're going to rise from your habitual feast
To find yourself staring down the throat of the beast
They call the revolution

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

The American Form of Government

A really great video.

Barack Obama Bows to Saudi King

Witness a traitor in action. The mainstream media was pretty much silent on this. And when initially confronted about this Barack Obama DENIED he ever did it. Don't lie to me. If you're going to lie, tell us that the Saudi King dropped a gold coin and that you were picking it up, but don't tell us it never happened.

If Jefferson and the other founders were alive today, they would be calling for his execution. America was created in rebellion to a King.

Goldman Sachs Scandal in Most Stages of American History

For our consideration (the members here, and you, the readership) I'm doing a copy and paste of Mike Morgan's blog post of the same name over at his site www.goldmansachs666.com. It follows in bold:

Goldman Sachs Scandal in Most Stages of American History . . . but ignored today!

NOTE: Below is an excerpt from a Bill Moyers interview of William Black. Yes, Mr. Black is still alive and telling it like it is. I gotta think he must be wearing a Kevlar body suit by now. Read below after Mr. Moyers asked a question about AIG . . .

WILLIAM K. BLACK: What we're doing with -- no, Treasury and both administrations. The Bush administration and now the Obama administration kept secret from us what was being done with AIG. AIG was being used secretly to bail out favored banks like UBS and like Goldman Sachs. Secretary Paulson's firm, that he had come from being CEO. It got the largest amount of money. $12.9 billion. And they didn't want us to know that. And it was only Congressional pressure, and not Congressional pressure, by the way, on Geithner, but Congressional pressure on AIG.

Where Congress said, "We will not give you a single penny more unless we know who received the money." And, you know, when he was Treasury Secretary, Paulson created a recommendation group to tell Treasury what they ought to do with AIG. And he put Goldman Sachs on it.

BILL MOYERS: Even though Goldman Sachs had a big vested stake.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Massive stake. And even though he had just been CEO of Goldman Sachs before becoming Treasury Secretary. Now, in most stages in American history, that would be a scandal of such proportions that he wouldn't be allowed in civilized society.

For the video and full transcript of this interview - Click Here

Goldman Sachs, One of the Banks Running the World

I retitled this blog post because Mike Morgan's is titled differently, so I thought I'd reproduce some of his comments in this one.

Gee, maybe if I reproduce all of Mike Morgan's pieces on our blog, maybe Goldman Sachs will come after little old me!

Mike mentions that in the following excerpts I present, he received this in an email. Here's the link to the article. Dated April 10th, 2009, the article reads as follows. (The piece was clearly written before Obama became President):

Does Goldman Sachs Run the World?

Not completely, but it doesn't mean they aren't trying. It seems that, literally, only flesh eating bacteria can stop these guys.

The Canadian dollar breaks above parity and, lo and behold, last Thursday, a Goldman managing director, Mark Carney is named governor of the Bank of Canada.

Mario Draghi, governor of the Bank of Italy, is also a former Goldman managing director.

Then, of course, there is U.S. Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, who was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman.

Goldman did have a man at the Bank of England, but their presence there has gone astray for the time being. Goldman man David Walton was on the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee from July 2005 until June 2006 when he died at the age of 43 from necrotizing fasciitis, i.e., flesh eating bacteria.

Unimpeded here by flesh eating bacteria, Goldman's presence in United States government financial power circles remains very strong. Prior to Paulson, during Bill Clinton's second administration, Robert Rubin served as Treasury Secretary. Rubin was Vice Chairman and Co-Chief Operating Officer at Goldman from 1987 to 1990. From the end of 1990 to 1992, Rubin served as Co-Chairman and Co-Senior Partner at Goldman. And, Robert Zoellick, new head of the World Bank after Paul Wolfowitz was booted, was a managing director and chairman of the Goldman's International Advisors department.

How do they use these positions? Who knows all the details? But, at a regularly scheduled Fed monetary policy meeting on August 7, the Fed failed to cut interest rates. Records, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Kenneth H. Thomas, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, show that the next day Rubin called Fed chairman Bernanke. Bernanke cut the discount rate 10 days later. Rubin says he called Bernanke to tell him he was doing a good job.

With the sub-prime crisis making markets extremely volatile, it was a difficult period for most investment banking firms, but not for Goldman.

On September 20, Goldman reported much better than expected 3rd quarter results. Analyst Glenn Schorr at UBS AG writes the earnings demonstrate Goldman's "ability to not only navigate choppy waters, but make a ton of money doing so." Better at navigating choppy waters? Do you think your local investment club would show a better performance if your club members managed to get positions running the U.S.Treasury, the central bank of Canada, the central bank of Italy and the World Bank? And if this isn't enough, wouldn't it be great to get Ben Bernanke to take your call in the middle of the sub-prime crisis?

So what are the Goldman boys up to now? Columnist and political insider, Robert Novak is reporting that the Goldman boys are getting ready for Hillary to move into the White House. Despite Treasury Secretary Paulson working for a Republican Administration, Novak reports:

Eyebrows at the Treasury were raised last Tuesday when Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. named a major Democratic fundraiser to an important advisory role. The next day, eyebrows were still elevated when Undersecretary Robert K. Steel participated in an event spearheaded by Bill Clinton's two Treasury secretaries.

Oh yeah, Steel also happens to be a retired Goldman Sachs vice chairman who worked at the firm with Rubin and Paulson.

Here's more from Novak, obviously scratching his head at Paulson's moves:

A longtime Republican officeholder now in the Bush administration noted these developments and e-mailed a fellow Republican outside the government: "This leads some to wonder whether this Treasury has become the pre-placed Hillary Clinton team." ...the former Goldman Sachs chief executive does not act or sound much like a conservative Republican to the GOP remnant at the Treasury. "It's not in Hank Paulson's DNA," one official told me. Is he loyal to Bush? "Hank is for Hank," the official replied.

Goldman Sachs hires law firm to shut blogger's site

All I have to say about this issue is that Mr. Morgan is protected constitutionally under freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The article that follows does say that: According to Chadbourne & Parke's letter, dated April 8, the bank is rattled because the site "violates several of Goldman Sachs' intellectual property rights" and also "implies a relationship" with the bank itself. I don't know whether this means that Mr. Morgan has a relationship to the bank in terms of current employment or previous employment history, or if Morgan is relying on someone from the inside to give him his information? There are contractual restrictions that keep people from criticizing a corporation they work for. Wouldn't this be the only way Goldman Sachs could legally go after Morgan? But I don't see anything wrong with playing Private Eye on a corporation for purposes of maintaining public record transparency to the taxpayer.

The "violation of intellectual property rights" claim could be a subterfuge the bank firm is using in an effort to silence one of its clearly most vocal critics. These are just my preliminary thoughts.

You can check out the blog here. I will be adding it to the Sites We Like section so that if anything further develops, Mr. Morgan will be sure to tell his readership about it.

In this era of incestuous business-government relationship ties, Mr. Morgan is a hero to be praised. The news story follows

Goldman Sachs hires law firm to shut blogger's site

The bank has instructed Wall Street law firm Chadbourne & Parke to pursue blogger Mike Morgan, warning him in a recent cease-and-desist letter that he may face legal action if he does not close down his website.

Florida-based Mr Morgan began a blog entitled "Facts about Goldman Sachs" – the web address for which is goldmansachs666.com – just a few weeks ago.

In that time Mr Morgan, a registered investment adviser, has added a number of posts to the site, including one entitled "Does Goldman Sachs run the world?". However, many of the posts relate to other Wall Street firms and issues.

According to Chadbourne & Parke's letter, dated April 8, the bank is rattled because the site "violates several of Goldman Sachs' intellectual property rights" and also "implies a relationship" with the bank itself.

Unsurprisingly for a man who has conjoined the bank's name with the Number of the Beast – although he jokingly points out that 666 was also the S&P500's bear-market bottom – Mr Morgan is unlikely to go down without a fight.

He claims he has followed all legal requirements to own and operate the website – and that the header of the site clearly states that the content has not been approved by the bank.

On a special section of his blog entitled "Goldman Sachs vs Mike Morgan" he predicts that the fight will probably end up in court.

"It's just another example of how a bully like Goldman Sachs tries to throw their weight around," he writes.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Morgan explained how he went through a similar battle with US homebuilder Lennar a few years ago after he set up a website to collect information on what he alleged was shoddy workmanship in its homes. The pair eventually settled out of court.

"Since I went through this with Lennar, I've had advice from some of the best intellectual property lawyers, and I know exactly what I can and can't do. We're not going to back down from this," he promises.

Mr Morgan adds that if Goldman manages to shut down his site, he has a number of other domain names registered.

• Speculation is mounting that Goldman Sachs is set to raise several billion dollars via a share sale, possibly next week, in order to pay down a $10bn (£6.8bn) US government loan, as revealed in The Sunday Telegraph last week.

Two New Links

I added two new links. One of them is Market Ticker, a site that I haven't looked into but an article written from it was sent to me in an email which I will be using in a future blog article post. The next one, Naked Capitalism, Jesse's other blogspot. With other bloggers contributing to that blog, they've built up the most impressive record of posting I've ever seen. In 2008 alone, they garnered a total of 2,143 posts.

H.R. 1207: Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009

This report is a bit dated since it was released five days ago on 4/1/2009. I hope it has gathered the interests of more cosponsors since then.

RonPaul.com blogged about the latest bill Congressman Ron Paul has introduced, a bill that would bring the Federal Reserve under audit. This would create a paper trail report of how the money they print is spent.

Here follows the important section of the text:

(a) In General- Subsection (b) of section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking all after `shall audit an agency' and inserting a period.

(b) Audit- Section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

`(e) Audit and Report of the Federal Reserve System-

`(1) IN GENERAL- The audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks under subsection (b) shall be completed before the end of 2010.

`(2) REPORT-

`(A) REQUIRED- A report on the audit referred to in paragraph (1) shall be submitted by the Comptroller General to the Congress before the end of the 90-day period beginning on the date on which such audit is completed and made available to the Speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the committee and each subcommittee of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and any other Member of Congress who requests it.

`(B) CONTENTS- The report under subparagraph (A) shall include a detailed description of the findings and conclusion of the Comptroller General with respect to the audit that is the subject of the report, together with such recommendations for legislative or administrative action as the Comptroller General may determine to be appropriate.'.

As of 4/1/2009 the cosponsors are:

Rep Abercrombie, Neil [HI-1] - 2/26/2009
Rep Akin, W. Todd [MO-2] - 3/19/2009
Rep Alexander, Rodney [LA-5] - 3/10/2009
Rep Bachmann, Michele [MN-6] - 2/26/2009
Rep Bartlett, Roscoe G. [MD-6] - 2/26/2009
Rep Blackburn, Marsha [TN-7] - 3/16/2009
Rep Blunt, Roy [MO-7] - 3/24/2009
Rep Broun, Paul C. [GA-10] - 2/26/2009
Rep Buchanan, Vern [FL-13] - 3/17/2009
Rep Burgess, Michael C. [TX-26] - 3/19/2009
Rep Burton, Dan [IN-5] - 2/26/2009
Rep Carter, John R. [TX-31] - 3/31/2009
Rep Castle, Michael N. [DE] - 3/17/2009
Rep Chaffetz, Jason [UT-3] - 3/6/2009
Rep Culberson, John Abney [TX-7] - 3/26/2009
Rep Deal, Nathan [GA-9] - 3/23/2009
Rep DeFazio, Peter A. [OR-4] - 3/9/2009
Rep Duncan, John J., Jr. [TN-2] - 3/6/2009
Rep Fleming, John [LA-4] - 3/18/2009
Rep Foxx, Virginia [NC-5] - 3/10/2009
Rep Franks, Trent [AZ-2] - 3/23/2009
Rep Garrett, Scott [NJ-5] - 3/5/2009
Rep Gingrey, Phil [GA-11] - 3/30/2009
Rep Grayson, Alan [FL-8] - 3/11/2009
Rep Heller, Dean [NV-2] - 3/6/2009
Rep Jones, Walter B., Jr. [NC-3] - 2/26/2009
Rep Kagen, Steve [WI-8] - 2/26/2009
Rep Kingston, Jack [GA-1] - 3/6/2009
Rep Lummis, Cynthia M. [WY] - 3/19/2009
Rep Marchant, Kenny [TX-24] - 3/11/2009
Rep McClintock, Tom [CA-4] - 3/6/2009
Rep McCotter, Thaddeus G. [MI-11] - 3/19/2009
Rep Miller, Jeff [FL-1] - 3/24/2009
Rep Paulsen, Erik [MN-3] - 3/30/2009
Rep Peterson, Collin C. [MN-7] - 3/19/2009
Rep Petri, Thomas E. [WI-6] - 3/10/2009
Rep Platts, Todd Russell [PA-19] - 3/19/2009
Rep Poe, Ted [TX-2] - 2/26/2009
Rep Posey, Bill [FL-15] - 2/26/2009
Rep Price, Tom [GA-6] - 3/10/2009
Rep Rehberg, Denny [MT] - 2/26/2009
Rep Rohrabacher, Dana [CA-46] - 3/6/2009
Rep Sessions, Pete [TX-32] - 3/23/2009
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-13] - 3/26/2009
Rep Stearns, Cliff [FL-6] - 3/6/2009
Rep Taylor, Gene [MS-4] - 3/6/2009
Rep Terry, Lee [NE-2] - 3/30/2009
Rep Wamp, Zach [TN-3] - 3/16/2009
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6] - 2/26/2009
Rep Young, Don [AK] - 3/6/2009

Here's the video Ron Paul released with his comments to his C4L member base:



I'll either add more information to this blog article as news reports keep coming on this topic or just create a new one.

Summers Receives Millions in Fees from bailed out banks

GATA put up an interesting piece of news published by Bloomberg on the third.

The story follows below. This is just sick. How much do you want to bet that the money Summers has received came from the taxpayer who has yet to pay for it? They're certainly not telling us how they're spending the money, we have no other conclusion to draw.

Lawrence Summers, director of President Barack Obama's National Economic Council, took in more than $2.7 million in speaking fees paid by organizations that included Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Bank of America Corp., among other companies now receiving taxpayer funds in the economic bailout.

Summers also was paid more than $1.4 million in salary and over $3.7 million in other compensation by the investment firm D.E. Shaw & Co. in the past 16 months, according to financial disclosure forms of top White House officials that the administration made public today.

Given Summers' resume, "there was considerable interest in hearing his economic insights from companies across various industries," said Ben LaBolt, a White House spokesman. Since coming to the White House, Summers "has been at the forefront of this administration's work to shore up our nation's financial system and to put in place a regulatory framework that will strengthen the financial system."

The rest of the story can be read here

Asia Confidential Interviews Bill Murphy

Keep this for the records folks. One of the few times the mainstream media actually tells the truth. Bloomberg's Bernie Lo of Asia Confidential interviews GATA Chairman Bill Murphy.

Maybe the mainstream media representatives should've been interviewing these guys when there could have been something done about it. But of course we know better than to expect the truth from corporate-owned news outlets that rely on the IRS for their personhood status and welfare benefits.

This is Incredible- Butt Naked Wanda, Big Brutha Thunda, and Masta Blasta Video

I'm not sure what to make of this but I'm almost certian that the man featured in this video is some sort of Christ-like entity. He certianly has all of the qualifications of a messiah figure, namely: he's a delusional derelict, homeless, and lays claim to have prophetic knowledge of future subjugation (i.e. monkey conquest).